7th at IRONMAN South Africa

My 7th place last Sunday was absolutely not the result I was aiming for in South Africa. This winter I trained really hard and everything went exceptionally good, until that Friday when I got attacked. An incident that I wanted to forget about as soon as possible, but for sure it left its marks.
 

The swim part went really good and I was able to start the bike section with the first group, only 1 min down on the 2 leaders. From the start I had to deal with back pain and headache, things that would last for the whole day. At some points the pain was unsustainable, and therefore I wasn’t able to keep up with the strongest guys on the bike. No matter how hard I wanted and tried, I could not produce the same power as I normally can.
 

The marathon left me with the same problems and I never felt comfortable. However, my perseverance in these difficult circumstances makes me proud. I started the run in 13th position and moved up to a final 7th place.
 

Besides the setbacks I had to deal with, I’m definitely looking for the positive points out of this ‘experience’. My good winter preparation will be rewarded in the near future, that’s for sure. The eagerness to show my good shape only became bigger. After this race I’m moving up to 5th place on the KPR (Kona Points Ranking), the official IRONMAN world ranking. 
 

Now it’s time to recover and prepare for the races ahead.
My next race: IRONMAN 70.3 Pays d’Aix on May 14th.
 

See you soon,
Frederik